Democracy is stronger than ever because the people are back in charge.

ROFLMAO How about all the fake news? Enemies of the people? Disgusting beyond belief, Trump can't fix that because he is the problem. Trump fights with the FBI. That is beyond appalling.

"The union is strong, because the people are strong." President TrumpEnemies of the people are the Dems. They made that clear by their reaction to the state of the Union. And their collusion.

What? Trump is the one with the collusion problem.

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Rep. Adam Schiff — the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee investigating contact between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin — said the evidence of coordination is "pretty damning" on CNN's "State of the Union."

"We have all of these facts in chronology, you'd have to believe that these were all isolated incidents, not connected to each other — just doesn't make rational sense ... We do know this: the Russians offered help, the campaign accepted help, the Russians gave help and the president made full use of that help. That is pretty damning, whether it is proof beyond a reasonable doubt of conspiracy or not."

Rep. Devin Nunes, who led the release of the memo, admitted to Fox News' Bret Baier that he hadn't read the FISA documents that made up the basis of the memo.

Why it matters: The memo is largely based on the argument that there were FISA abuses within the FBI, particularly relating to former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. As chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, some are criticizing Nunes for not reading these pertinent documents himself before releasing the memo.

Democracy is stronger than ever because the people are back in charge.

ROFLMAO How about all the fake news? Enemies of the people? Disgusting beyond belief, Trump can't fix that because he is the problem. Trump fights with the FBI. That is beyond appalling.

Not hard to believe that you are in favor of corruption in the FBI.

I find it odd that you being a racist found yourself criticizing Black lives matter because they accused cops of being very corrupt, now what is it son, all cops are honest or are just a few dishonest?

Donald Trump’s war with the media is nothing new. Even early into his presidential campaign, he made a habit out of threatening reporters who showed up to his rallies, and once elected he simply accused any news outlet that he disagreed with as being “fake news.” The president can barely last a day without lashing out against the media, so it was more or less business as usual when he tweeted on Monday morning, “We should have a contest as to which of the Networks, plus CNN and not including Fox, is the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted in its political coverage of your favorite President (me).”

“They are all bad,” he continued. “Winner to receive the FAKE NEWS TROPHY!” On MSNBC late Monday however, Brian Williams spoke with former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, who warned of just how dangerous Trump’s allegations are. “Well he all but declared Fox News to be American state TV,” Schmidt said. “It’s extraordinary. Secondly, with regard to CNN international, with people who live in autocratic countries who live behind a veil of totalitarianism — CNN international, they thirst for that coverage because it’s a truth to them.”

Democracy is stronger than ever because the people are back in charge.

ROFLMAO How about all the fake news? Enemies of the people? Disgusting beyond belief, Trump can't fix that because he is the problem. Trump fights with the FBI. That is beyond appalling.

"The union is strong, because the people are strong." President Trump

Enemies of the people are the Dems. They made that clear by their reaction to the state of the Union. And their collusion.

Please in your own words, explain the terminology of the usage "union" and "people" because Webster dictionary and common logic dictates a bond or common thread that ties people together. We have a corrupt president that is very proficient at dividing people based on economics and color but as you state, all this is fake news. A smart person only need to look at the world surrounding us, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Africa, lack of healthcare for American people, ignoring the possibility that Russia is hacking our governmental infrastructure or election but someone as yourself deemed all the current actions unacceptable when the Obama administration were in control. Did you have a change of clarity or is this just another one of your hypocritical racist and hateful moment?

During a press conference about the House Intelligence Committee’s increasingly controversial memo, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) was subject to a harsh question from a reporter about the GOP’s criticism of the FBI and Justice Department.Report Advertisement

“Republicans are traditionally the party of law and order,” the reporter said. “We have an FBI director saying ‘please don’t release this memo, it is misleading and incomplete.’ He was appointed by a Republican president. Doesn’t that give you pause?”

“No,” Ryan responded, before launching into a description of the law under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Earlier in the press conference, Ryan had denied that the memo was an attempt to undermine the Russia investigation.

“This memo is not an indictment of the FBI, of the Department of Justice, it does not impugn the Mueller investigation or the Deputy Attorney General

Josh Campbell, a former supervisory special agent who worked as an assistant for former FBI director James Comey, publicly announced his resignation in the New York Times on Friday. (Trump’s firing of Comey, who bucked entreaties to soft-pedal the Russia investigation, led to Mueller’s appointment.)

“After more than a decade of service, which included investigating terrorism, working to rescue kidnapping victims overseas and being special assistant to the director, I am reluctantly turning in my badge and leaving an organization I love,” Campbell wrote in the Times. “Why? So I can join the growing chorus of people who believe that the relentless attacks on the bureau undermine not just America’s premier law enforcement agency but also the nation’s security. My resignation is painful, but the alternative of remaining quiet while the bureau is tarnished for political gain is impossible.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan deleted a tweet Saturday touting the GOP tax overhaul after critics called him out for appearing out of touch with the reality of low-income individuals' financial situations.

The tweet shared the story of a secretary who, according to a report by the Associated Press, was "pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week."

"A secretary at a public high school in Lancaster, PA, said she was pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week ... she said [that] will more than cover her Costco membership for the year," Ryan tweeted with a link to the full article.A basic Costco membership costs $60 a year.

People, including several prominent Democrats, noted on social media that $1.50 per week is not a significant pay bump.

"Paul Ryan deleted his embarrassing tweet of a blatant admission because he and Republicans don't want you to know the truth: the #GOPTaxScam is a gift to corporate America and the top 1% at your expense," Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-California, tweeted. "He also doesn't want you to know he got $500.000.00 from the Koch family."

Remember, if you don't think benefits like an extra $1.50 a week and free Hostess snacks are good enough, you're the one who's out of touch," he added.Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, also tweeted a link to the since-deleted Ryan tweet, writing: "Wells Fargo, fresh off of defrauding millions of Americans, gets $3.4 billion."

California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted with a screen shot of Ryan's tweet: "Guess someone told Paul Ryan you shouldn't go around praising yourself for giving a working person an extra $1.50 a week — because he deleted this tweet."

President Trump didn't just take credit for the booming stock market. He outright cheered it to go "up, up, and up."

But all of a sudden, the stock market that Trump attached himself to is in turmoil, putting the White House in a difficult spot. The Dow has plunged more than 2,100 points, or 8%, in just six trading days as investors fret over cracks emerging in the bond market.

That the administration felt the need to weigh in underlines the risk Trump took in becoming the cheerleader-in-chief.

Presidents don't typically comment on the Dow's day-to-day moves, in part because the market is notoriously fickle. Wall Street is always one mood swing away from turning a rally into a plunge. And taking so much credit for the good days makes it hard to distance yourself from the bad ones.

"It's a risky game to talk about the markets. But it seems like Trump is going to live or die by the stock market," said Greg Valliere, chief global strategist at Horizon Investments.

Trump has tweeted about the stock market dozens of times since his election, frequently bragging about the latest all-time highs on Wall Street.

The Dow closed down 1,175 points, as the market bet on more interest rate hikes, the same day that new Fed chair was sworn in.

The index had recovered after briefly dropping 1,500 points, the largest intraday drop in the Dow's history, to break below the psychologically important level of 25,000.

But the overall pullback was only 4.6 percent, not record-setting on a percentage-wise basis. The S&P 500 would have to drop 7 percent or more to trigger a halt in trading, and it would have to drop 10 percent or more to be considered a "correction."

Still the plunge had markets heading to their lowest close of the year and it followed a dip on Friday, which itself was the sixth-largest point drop in the index's history.

Monday's selling spree also occurred the same day that Jerome Powell, the new chairman of the Federal Reserve, which is in charge of setting the potentially higher interest rates that are driving the sell-off, was sworn in.

On Sunday the central bank’s departing leader sounded a note of caution on stock prices.

“It is a source of some concern that asset valuations are so high,” outgoing Fed chair Janet Yellen told CBS News on Sunday, highlighting price-earnings ratios in equities.

Now, as Powell takes the reins, he and the rest of the Fed Board of Governors will have to determine if that long-running trend is starting to reverse — and how to respond. The market continued its wild Friday dive into Monday with a roller-coaster ride that saw the Dow plunge 600 points by mid-afternoon.

“Everybody knew this was coming — stocks are close to record valuations and it was a matter of when it was going to happen, not if,” said Dan North, chief economist at Euler Hermes North America. “I would expect that at this point, it’s probably sentiment-driven and we’ll get a rebound,” he said.

Market observers debated whether this was reflective of a short-term breather for a meteorically rising market, or the harbinger of a more broad-based correction. The appearance of higher wage growth in Friday’s jobs report was good news from a Main Street economic growth standpoint, but it spooked Wall Street as investors pondered whether this would give the Fed more incentive to raise interest rates at a quicker pace.

Under Yellen, the Fed had set a course for three interest rate hikes in 2018. Economists debated whether this would be too much, or too little — a question with higher stakes in light of the market’s dramatic movements over the last two days.

“There’s a lingering fear of inflation at the Fed that may cause the Fed to tighten in anticipation of further improvement we might never see,” said Lindsey Piegza, chief economist and managing director at Stifel Fixed Income.

Piegza said an overly aggressive Fed risked blowing out rather than stoking the nation’s economy. “You’ve got a lot of volatility in the equities market. The big question is, ‘Why rush?’ “

While Yellen mentee Jerome Powell has a similar outlook as the former Fed chair, Piegza said the other members — and the three vacancies that President Donald Trump's administration has yet to fill — make monetary policy movements hard to predict. “There is no consensus among Fed officials,” she said. "We don’t know where the Fed is going from here… That certainly adds some increased volatility for market participants.”

“For stocks, two or three hikes — the market has been fine with that for a long time. It’s once you get north of there that I think is a headwind,” said Scott Wren, senior global equity strategist at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

Wren said he believed the chance for a fourth rate hike this year is slim, but pointed to Friday and Monday’s falloff as evidence that some consider it more likely. “I think the market is concerned and that’s part of the selloff — that they would do more than three,” he said.

One worry is the psychological impact a protracted market slide could have on consumer confidence. In reality, market fluctuations have little to do with Americans’ day-to-day finances — the majority don’t own stocks — but the halo effect of that growing wealth is very real, and a market rout could throw cold water on the consumer spending the economy needs.

“Yes, investors should be mentally prepared for more downside,” said Mitchell Goldberg, president of ClientFirst Strategy, although he added that he didn’t expect the major indices to fall more than another 1 to 3 percent in the near term.

Other experts said that the long bull market could leave stocks open for a more sizable setback. “Corrections of around 10 percent or so are really quite common,” said Martin Baily, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “It wouldn’t be a surprise… particularly when the market has grown as strong as it has for as long as it has.”

The president can’t shut down the Russia investigation, even if he gets rid of the special counsel.

By DAVID YASSKY and BENNETT L. GERSHMAN

February 14, 2018

To follow this train of suppositions to one possible conclusion, we can envision Trump demanding the firing of a prosecutor who is actually in the process of trying one or more of the president’s close associates, on facts that could constitute an impeachable offense.

Of course, Howell’s decisions would soon be appealed to the Supreme Court, as were Sirica’s. While many pundits accuse the court of politicization, we expect that in such an extraordinary situation, the Roberts court would act to protect the Constitution, just as the Burger court did in 1974. It would then be up to Trump to either submit to a Supreme Court ruling or precipitate a true moment of national crisis.

Elected officials, and citizens, should give thought to that scenario, among others, in preparing for the perilous months ahead.

Good reading Kyle, this entire debacle goes way beyond politics but centralizes more on the life of Donald J. Trump who's was born, nurtured and groomed for a lack of ethics, selfishness and uncaring mentality. What's really sad is the fact that Trump supporters have taken on the attribute of a failed narcissistic, failing to acknowledge their shortcomings, in particular, the fact that they elected and support a proven dishonest person not worthy of the title POTUS. It's so clear to most that this game of being your own person and not answering to anyone is dragging our country down the path of bankruptcy both financially and morally.

A side note, the Pennsylvania elementary school districts are not speaking of president Trump in any form or fashion but spoke admirably of the 44th POTUS for 8 years, what does that say about the negative impressions being levied on our future generation in regard to Trump?